Marlon Wayans Is Bringing Shorty Back for Scary Movie 6—Here’s What Fans Can Expect
Comedy legend Marlon Wayans just dropped the news: Shorty’s making his comeback in Scary Movie 6, and the internet is already losing it.
Scary Movie is actually waking up after a 12-year nap. The new sequel is real, it has a date, and yes, Shorty is back. Here is where things stand and how we got here.
Where the new one stands
Last April, the Miramax label at Paramount - now run by Jonathan Glickman - gave the go-ahead to a new Scary Movie, with an early plan to hit theaters in 2025. That timetable slipped. Earlier this year, the studio planted a flag for June 12, 2026. So, a bit later than hoped, but it is dated.
The title might lean into the Roman numeral gag as Scary MoVIe. Cute. Expected. I am not mad at it.
The returning crew
The revival is happening with the people who launched the thing in the first place: the Wayans brothers. Marlon Wayans told Entertainment Weekly he is reprising Shorty Meeks, his fan-favorite from the first two films. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are officially back as Cindy Campbell and Brenda Meeks. Wayans also teased that a few more familiar faces could return, though no deals are set yet.
Who is writing it
Shawn and Marlon Wayans are writing the screenplay with longtime collaborator Rick Alvarez. If that name rings a bell, he has worked with the family on A Haunted House, A Haunted House 2, Fifty Shades of Black, Naked, Sextuplets, Dance Flick, Little Man, White Chicks, and Scary Movie 2, among others.
Marlon is treating Shorty like a job, not a cameo
Wayans bulked up to play a football player in the horror movie Him, then had to reverse course to look like Shorty again. He told EW he dropped 20 pounds so he would not stroll in looking like a 225-pound gym bro.
"I just lost 20 pounds busting my behind every day 'cause I didn't wanna show up to set as Shorty buff at 225. That'd be lazy of me. I wanna do the work, I wanna look like Shorty."
What they are aiming for tonally
Wayans says the script bakes in how comedy, horror, and audiences have all changed in the last decade-plus. The generational gap is part of the joke, and the plan is to put these characters under pressure in properly horrific situations to let the comedy pop. Translation: not just meme-chasing sketches, but character-based chaos. We will see.
Quick franchise refresher and the behind-the-scenes shuffle
The first Scary Movie landed in 2000 via Dimension Films, directed by In Living Color creator Keenen Ivory Wayans. The screenplay was credited to Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Buddy Johnson, Phil Beauman, Jason Friedberg, and Aaron Seltzer. It cost about 19 million dollars and exploded to 278 million worldwide, which is why the sequels came fast.
Scary Movie 2 followed in 2001 with Keenen Ivory Wayans back in the chair and a larger writing team: Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Alyson Fouse, Greg Grabianski, Dave Polsky, Michael Anthony Snowden, and Craig Wayans. Budget jumped to 45 million; it made 141 million.
The big pivot came with Scary Movie 3 in 2003. Dimension brought in Airplane and The Naked Gun legend David Zucker to direct. The script came from Craig Mazin and Pat Proft. Zucker, Mazin, and Proft carried that baton into Scary Movie 4 in 2006, with Jim Abrahams also getting a writing credit. SM3 cost 48 million and hit almost 221 million; SM4 cost 40 million and did 178 million.
After a seven-year break, Scary Movie 5 arrived in 2013 with Undercover Brother's Malcolm D. Lee directing a script by Pat Proft and David Zucker. The budget dropped to 20 million and the movie made 78 million. Notably, SM5 is the only entry without Anna Faris and Regina Hall - and with both returning for the new one, it is going to stay that way.
The bottom line
New Scary Movie, date set for June 12, 2026. The Wayans are writing, Marlon is Shorty again, Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back, and the door is open for more alumni. The title might flex as Scary MoVIe. After a long layoff and a lot of shifts behind the scenes over the years, the franchise is basically circling back to its roots. I am curious - cautiously - which is a healthy way to feel about a parody series in 2026.